iPhone 6 Plus lag is real

[lagwagon]

Some people will defend Apple to the end of the earth. I love Apple, but I am man enough to admit and complain when they do me wrong. I just don't wanna sit back and put up with it while trying to lie to people saying that it's the greatest thing ever when it's not.

Jesus Christ man...no one is defending Apple to the end of the earth. I'm sure you're referring to me as one of "them".

I've said numerous times that I've seen and experienced low quality animations, but it's not all the time on every single one, and so have others. What we are "defending" as you call it, is that it can run at decent and acceptable levels. Because every time someone jumps in a thread to say how laggy and slow whatever iOS version of the time is, they always use a small flaw as an entire blanket statement about the whole OS.

It's true iOS can be stuttery, slow and laggy for some. It's also true iOS can be pretty good and reasonably smooth for others. The people who have it slow seem to always ignore the whole other side. And they also seem to like tossing out insults to the other side like we're blind, ignorant to what low fps is or apologists.

We aren't defending Apple, we are arguing blanket statements claimed to be how it is for 100% of the users of iPhones and iPads. When the reality is it runs a wide gamut of bad to good on equal devices or not.

 

[wesk702]

Had the lag after the update, but about 30min later it was gone. Mines fine.

 

[Jayson A]

I think older devices have the advantage here for some reason.

I just updated my iPad mini 1 to iOS 9 and this is the smoothest it's ever been (at least since iOS 7). The only place I'm seeing stuttering is in the app switcher. Everything else is really smooth. Even control center is lag-free.

I wonder if it's just the 64 bit devices that are having an issue... you know, the Metal compatible ones.

 

[Surfheart]

Jesus Christ man...no one is defending Apple to the end of the earth. I'm sure you're referring to me as one of "them".

I've said numerous times that I've seen and experienced low quality animations, but it's not all the time on every single one, and so have others. What we are "defending" as you call it, is that it can run at decent and acceptable levels. Because every time someone jumps in a thread to say how laggy and slow whatever iOS version of the time is, they always use a small flaw as an entire blanket statement about the whole OS.

It's true iOS can be stuttery, slow and laggy for some. It's also true iOS can be pretty good and reasonably smooth for others. The people who have it slow seem to always ignore the whole other side. And they also seem to like tossing out insults to the other side like we're blind, ignorant to what low fps is or apologists.

We aren't defending Apple, we are arguing blanket statements claimed to be how it is for 100% of the users of iPhones and iPads. When the reality is it runs a wide gamut of bad to good on equal devices or not.

This is a thread about the 6 plus. On ALL the many 6 Plus phones I have seen iOS 9 on, there is an identical performance regression from iOS 8. All the iPhone 6's I've seen have been fine.

The 6 Plus has the same GPU as the 6 but must push a lot more pixels hence the issues I assume. What apple have done to reduce GUI performance though is not obvious since there doesn't appear to be additional graphical flourishes and they have touted performance improvements for iOS9 through the use of Metal for the GUI rendering.

 

[Surfheart]

Just rolled my 6 plus back to 8.4 just feels so much smoother.

I'll wait out the iOS 9 performance issues.

 

[Zaft]

I'm not sure how this is happening but my 6 Plus on 9.1 is holding 3-5 tabs open even when I leave to use different apps, It stayed open for like 5 minutes. Apple must of done something with ram management. I could barley keep 2 open in 8.4

 

[sunking101]

I'm not sure how this is happening but my 6 Plus on 9.1 is holding 3-5 tabs open even when I leave to use different apps, It stayed open for like 5 minutes. Apple must of done something with ram management. I could barley keep 2 open in 8.4

What about apps though, do they still refresh just as readily? ie swapping between two or three apps (and spending some time in each)? My 6+ couldn't handle swapping between one intensive app and one browser tab on iOS8.

 

[crashoverride77]

I think more accurately they are saying underpowered relative to the software they are running.

If you look at this objectively the 6 outperforms the 6+. And the 6 on iOS 8.4.1 outperforms the 6 on iOS 9 (at least according to side by side comparisons). So where does that leave the 6+?

Without looking outside of Apples ecosystem there is a valid argument in saying its underpowered.

BTW I'm just an outside observer, I don't own either device.

Yeah thats has more to do with iOS tho rather than device power. Saying the iPhone 6 is underpowered comes of as like Apple released a phone below specs. This is simply not true, the A8 was and still is at the top of the food chain.

Apple is clearly struggling with iOS performance since 7 and I just dont know what they are doing. For example I had the ios 9 beta 3-5 on my iPad Air 2 and was well happy with it (apart from the fact that animations once again have to finish before doing anything). Than I installed the GM on my phone and it was pretty bad, lag wise. I obviously upgraded to the public realise the other day and most of the lag I had is gone. Most of it tho and not all of it, I just dont know why nobody there sees these issues. iOS basically chokes every now and than and since iOS 7 they just cannot get that sorted. Sometimes its better like iOS 7.1, iOS 8.4, sometimes its worse like iOS 7.0, 8.0 - 8.3 or now ios 9.

iOS and OS X teams must also be different I suppose and the OS X team should get some credit this year. OS X is absolutely amazing imo, they did a great job with ElCapitan in all aspects.
Its not like iOS 9 crashes all the time like 7.0 or 8.0 did, and they actually fixed bugs that were over 1.5 years old but they just cannot get that smoothness right.

I think Tim Cook needs to summon his inner Steve Jobs once and a while and just go crazy. Have a meeting with the iOS team and be like "What is iOS supposed to be?". Than tell them that "smoothness" is one of them and that their work is s***t.
Or they need to hire more people because they cannot keep up with what they are doing anymore. I mean watch os, tv OS, iOS 8-9, OS X Yosemite redesign / El Capitan, apple music, IPL, Continuity, iCloud drive, much better spotlight, proactivity, handoff, siri improvements, apple Pay, news app etc. They have done a lot those last 2 years.
The answer is probably both.

How is the apple outside world? Im curious too but not because I want to leave apple.

 

[Zaft]

What about apps though, do they still refresh just as readily? ie swapping between two or three apps (and spending some time in each)? My 6+ couldn't handle swapping between one intensive app and one browser tab on iOS8.

I would say the same as 8.4 as far as app switching goes.

EDIT: Also I have recently turned reduce motion on and that has eliminated app delay.

 

[Razeus]

Mine has been nothing but smooth. Most of the issues I had with it on iOS 8 are gone (so far). Memory management seems to be much better, but Safari still reloads.

 

[yesjam]

I don't have a 6 Plus, but I have a 6. It's true that 9.0 is noticeably more laggy than 8.4.1, which is hard to understand considering my iPad (an iPad 3) performs so much better under iOS 9 than iOS 8.

iOS updates "obsolete" a device much more obviously than OS X updates, and I don't plan on updating my iPhone 6 to iOS 9 unless a 9.x.x update is proven to show significant performance enhancements over the .0 version.

 

[crashoverride77]

I don't have a 6 Plus, but I have a 6. It's true that 9.0 is noticeably more laggy than 8.4.1, which is hard to understand considering my iPad (an iPad 3) performs so much better under iOS 9 than iOS 8.

iOS updates "obsolete" a device much more obviously than OS X updates, and I don't plan on updating my iPhone 6 to iOS 9 unless a 9.x.x update is proven to show significant performance enhancements over the .0 version.

iOS doesnt obsolete anything, its called progress in technology. OSX actually did the contrary, many people say that ElCapitan makes their mac run much better than it has in years, me including.
It only took them 1 year to fix almost all of the issue that the Yosemite redesign brought. I swear ElCapitan runs like a dream, 2 weeks constant use with Xcode and video editing and no slow downs or anything. The worst was a 2 second beachball, but even that was nice because they redesigned it. lol

iOS on the other hand is a different story, they have been struggling with it since the iOS 7 redesign. Basically the cult print for all of this always seems to come back to the Gaussian blur they use.
Its the same damn blur that caused Yosemites mission control to run like dog and the only way to fix it was to remove it in ElCapitan. I think that tells you everything, if evan a 2014 mac can't run that kind of blur.

Sometimes its better, sometimes its worse. iOS 9 runs exactly the same on my iPhone 6 than iOS 8.4 did, maybe with the exception of the slight app delay, spotlight iffiness, and occasional lag in multitasking.
iOS 9 runs much better, I mean much much better than 8.0 and 7.0 ever did, lets not even mention all the bugs they fixed, some dating back 1.5 years. Im sure for the iPad Pro they will put extra care into it, and hearing from the threads 9.1 looks to be alright.
Has nothing to do with updates that obsolete your device tho, thats just a stupid myth that needs to die.

 

[Zaft]

I will say some things have gotten better. Switching tabs in safari is smoother and replying to a message via the lock screen has no keyboard lag now on the 6 Plus.

 

[yesjam]

iOS doesnt obsolete anything, its called progress in technology. OSX actually did the contrary, many people say that ElCapitan makes their mac run much better than it has in years, me including.
It only took them 1 year to fix almost all of the issue that the Yosemite redesign brought. I swear ElCapitan runs like a dream, 2 weeks constant use with Xcode and video editing and no slow downs or anything. The worst was a 2 second beachball, but even that was nice because they redesigned it. lol

iOS on the other hand is a different story, they have been struggling with it since the iOS 7 redesign. Sometimes its better, sometimes its worse. iOS 9 runs exactly the same on my iPhone 6 than iOS 8.4 did, maybe with the exception of the slight app delay, spotlight iffiness, and occasional lag in multitasking.
iOS 9 runs much better, I mean much much better than 8.0 and 7.0 ever did. Im sure for the iPad Pro they will put extra care into it, and hearing from the threads 9.1 looks to be alright.
Has nothing to do with updates that obsolete your device tho, thats just a stupid myth that needs to die.

Notice that I put "obsolete" in scare quotes. For lack of a better word, iOS updates do hurt performance far greater than OS X updates ever have, and they cut out features from older devices at a much faster rate than OS X. You prove this by saying that El Cap runs better than Yosemite - yes, this is exactly the point. When has a subsequent iOS release run better than its precedent release? I have been using iOS since iOS 4, and I can tell you that in the last five years, that phenomenon has not occurred once. Indeed, new iOS versions have certainly added new functionality, but none of them have actually run more efficiently. This makes sense - the turn-around time on mobile devices is much quicker than for desktop computers. However, it doesn't make it any less true or any less frustrating. Furthermore, OS X El Cap will run on devices that are up to eight years old. It's been eight years since the release of the first iPhone, to put things into perspective. iPhones half that age won't run iOS 9.

You specifically write that "iOS 9 runs exactly the same on my iPhone 6 as 8.4, maybe with the exception of a slight app delay, spotlight iffiness, and occasional lag in multitasking" - I hate to break it to you, but that means that iOS 9 does not run exactly the same on your iPhone 6 as 8.4.

 

[Imory]

iOS doesnt obsolete anything, its called progress in technology. OSX actually did the contrary, many people say that ElCapitan makes their mac run much better than it has in years, me including.
It only took them 1 year to fix almost all of the issue that the Yosemite redesign brought. I swear ElCapitan runs like a dream, 2 weeks constant use with Xcode and video editing and no slow downs or anything. The worst was a 2 second beachball, but even that was nice because they redesigned it. lol

iOS on the other hand is a different story, they have been struggling with it since the iOS 7 redesign. Basically the cult print for all of this always seems to come back to the Gaussian blur they use. Its the same damn blur that caused Yosemites mission control to run like dog and the only way to fix it was to remove it. I think that tells you everything if a 2014 yosemite mac can't run that kind of blur.
Sometimes its better, sometimes its worse. iOS 9 runs exactly the same on my iPhone 6 than iOS 8.4 did, maybe with the exception of the slight app delay, spotlight iffiness, and occasional lag in multitasking.
iOS 9 runs much better, I mean much much better than 8.0 and 7.0 ever did. Im sure for the iPad Pro they will put extra care into it, and hearing from the threads 9.1 looks to be alright.
Has nothing to do with updates that obsolete your device tho, thats just a stupid myth that needs to die.

And one shouldn't have to expect anything else than 9.0 to run better than 7.0 or 8.0 ever did. They were complete overhauls in terms of visuals and APIs. 9.0 was supposed to be a polished version that would improve performance and fix bugs from previous releases.

There's absolutely no reason for any customer to upgrade from a solid version, which is 8.4.1 (which took a long time) to an inferior experience with less stability and stuttering.

9.1 will hopefully be released in the coming weeks, but that still doesn't seem to solve the lag/stuttering of the app switcher. Apple never adressed the lag of the weather app during the entire life of iOS 8, so I sincerely hope that won't be the case of iOS 9.

 

[AppleRobert]

And what do you want folks to do owning a Plus because they prefer the screen size/resolution and have vision issues. Better return, sell or exchange it is then so they can get millisecond speed improvement or perhaps see less animations versus the 6? Geez Apple, why did you even make a Plus?

 

[ACG12]

Glad I updated from 8.3, it runs better and I like the added features.

 

[TheSteves]

Had the lag after the update, but about 30min later it was gone. Mines fine.

I had a huge lag on my 6+ in 9.1 beta for several days!!

now smooth as butter maybe even faster than 8.4.1- can hardly remember

very strange!!!

 

[sunking101]

I had a huge lag on my 6+ in 9.1 beta for several days!!

now smooth as butter maybe even faster than 8.4.1- can hardly remember

very strange!!!

The 6+ has never been smooth as butter and you've admitted yourself that you can't remember how it performed on iOS8...

 

[bruinsrme]

well I hope they fix the "lag" before they release the 6S+. god I would hate to have hold a heavier phone and have lag

 

[trombo22]

I have had the 6+ since launch and while there are some minor graphic issues, ios 9 public release is one of the better updates so far. While yes I can see the "stutter" of control center and sometimes a low fps on multitasking although these are such minor "lag" that doesn't effect time to complete a task at all. Overall ios 9 does feel the smoothest and most responsive to me. Scrolling lists such as messages are a lot faster. Notification center is a lot better, the slight delay to open an app from home screen is the only part that I notice on a regular basis. I do have a extensive update process I have been using for the last 5 years for .0, .1, .2 etc updates that has helped with most updates. Icloud backup, update os, update all apps, wait couple hours, open every app, close all apps in multitasking, and a hard restart.

 

[Imory]

It's funny how control center is something that will always trickle down and eventually affect every device in terms of smoothness by causing stuttering, with every iteration of a new iOS.

 

[AppleRobert]

I have had the 6+ since launch and while there are some minor graphic issues, ios 9 public release is one of the better updates so far. While yes I can see the "stutter" of control center and sometimes a low fps on multitasking although these are such minor "lag" that doesn't effect time to complete a task at all. Overall ios 9 does feel the smoothest and most responsive to me. Scrolling lists such as messages are a lot faster. Notification center is a lot better, the slight delay to open an app from home screen is the only part that I notice on a regular basis. I do have a extensive update process I have been using for the last 5 years for .0, .1, .2 etc updates that has helped with most updates. Icloud backup, update os, update all apps, wait couple hours, open every app, close all apps in multitasking, and a hard restart.

Seems like our 6 Plus are pretty darn good as that is my overall experience that the lag is very minor. There are teens, moms and pops, grandmothers and grandfathers using the Plus for heavens sake they ain't gonna care about something so minor.

Grant it we want the best performance from the Plus. You think we can ask $2k from folks not happy with theirs and sold them ours? Seems like ours is better.

 

[AppleRobert]

I had a huge lag on my 6+ in 9.1 beta for several days!!

now smooth as butter maybe even faster than 8.4.1- can hardly remember

very strange!!!

Did you wave a magic wand or something?

What did you do for the performance difference? A reset, load from itunes, etc. etc.

 

[Armen]

iOS 9 betas, iOS 9 GM and iOS 9.1 beta 1 all have lag on my 6 Plus. The most common lag is opening control centre, closing safari and retuning home lags like crazy and multitasking is a lag fest!

funny. I had all the betas, iOS 9 GM, iOS 9.1 PB1 and now iOS 9 Final and my 6+ works perfectly as if it was on 8.4.1